Daimler India Commercial
Vehicles (DICV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, has taken solar power
usage at its manufacturing plant in Oragadam near Chennai to the next level.
With the completion of a major addition to the plant’s existing photovoltaic
installations, the overall technical capacity has increased from 0.8 to 3.3
Megawatts.
The new solar power field,
built on previously idle stretches of land within the plant’s highly modern
commercial vehicle test track area, consists of more than 10,000 new
polycrystalline photovoltaic panels. Thanks to the upgrade, the share of solar
power is now covering more than one fourth of the average daytime electrical
power need of DICV’s operations on site.
Daimler India Commercial
Vehicles’ environmental management system is certified by the renowned
institute UL-DQS according to the global standards of the ISO 14001:2004
Environmental Management System certification. The company’s environmental and
sustainability efforts cover various aspects of its operations.
The plant in Oragadam near
Chennai is spread over 400 acres. More
than 16,000 trees have been planted since the start of operations in 2012, as part
of ongoing efforts in order to ultimately make the entire site one of India’s
greenest industrial complexes.
Water management is another
focus, ensuring that the precious resource is used as sparingly as possible,
and that no water leaves the plant. These efforts include rainwater harvesting
with a huge storage pond holding more than 60,000 kilolitres of water, and two
sewage treatment plants which return clean water that can be used e.g. for
irrigation. Dedicated state-of-the-art facilities are also used to handle,
store and dispose of hazardous materials and harmful effluents within the plant
complex.
Source: DICV